Shropshire Star

TNS inquiry needed before reputation is damaged, warns Labour group leader

An independent inquiry into the TNS saga must be carried out before any further damage is done to the reputation of Shropshire Council, says the leader of the authority's Labour group.

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The TNS ground at Park Hall

The group is making its call in a motion to the next full Shropshire Council meeting to be held on September 20.

The authority gave The New Saints FC an £80,000 grant in 2012 to build a new stand for its participation in European competitions.

The council says the money should have been paid back to local organisations in grants of £16,000 a year over five years – the criteria for which was to be approved by the Oswestry Economic Board

However, earlier this year the council announced just £10,000 of the grant had been paid back.

It has led to an increasingly bitter row between the club and the council over whether the money had to be repaid and who is to blame.

Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Alan Mosley, said: “Given the escalating controversy surrounding the legacy grant awarded to TNS we have decided to put down a motion to the next full council meeting demanding an independent inquiry into all aspects of the events over the last six years.

"Unfortunately, our previous request to the leader, Councillor Peter Nutting, and CEO Clive Wright was rejected out of hand with the former being quoted as saying 'it’s a cock up not a conspiracy'.

"This was despite the special Audit Committee report concluding that they could not determine whether failures to recover grant monies from TNS due to managerial and officer changes were 'by design or accident'.

"The same report states that opportunities to regain the money from TNS occurred on 10 separate occasions, including during the reign of the current administration, but 'it is unclear why action was not taken'.

"It also notes evidence that on occasion advice was given not to pursue TNS for repayments and that important relevant detailed information had been wiped from a computer.

"It is very clear that the owner of TNS refutes many of the council’s claims and counters its interpretation of events. Indeed he seems to be threatening the CEO with action for damages to the Oswestry club’s reputation.

"There remain doubts in the minds of a large number of residents and the reputation of the council is being further eroded without issues being unambiguously resolved.

"Many believe that there may have been a cover-up of wrong-doing. We believe that the Audit Committee’s internal 'desk-based' work cannot resolve many unanswered question and indeed the report itself highlights large areas of doubt.

"Hence, this must be followed up by an independent inquiry to provide rigorous external audit, unlimited inquiry and analysis.”

Harry Taylor, deputy leader, said: "Since we made our original request for an independent inquiry the public spat between TNS and Shropshire Council has intensified.

"The longer this saga continues the lower the reputations of both organisations sink in the eyes of the public. It's time for decisive action."